DESPITE THE pre-match protocols being put back five minutes for another pitch inspection and his ensuing on-field deliberations with Dave Pearson and Philippe Saint-André, Declan Kidney understandably gave his players no indication that the game might be cancelled. Best not to put any doubts in their mind, so when Pearson entered the Irish dressingroom at about 8.50pm, the Irish players were all set to go.

“We were in the dressingroom,” said Paul O’Connell. “We were about 30 seconds away from going out. We were just beginning to put on our jackets and our gear to keep warm for the anthems. We were full sure we were playing up until that point,” he said.

“Dave just walked into the dressingroom and said ‘it’s off’ and Declan shook his hand, he walked out and we sat down,” added O’Connell, smiling as if to convey the surreal situation.

“It was just kind of deflated then. Guys sat down for a few minutes. It’s a really strange situation. We prepared, we’d had a good week’s prep. Obviously we were disappointed last week and determined to put in a big performance after last week. Apart from the few parts of the pitch that were frozen, it was beautiful conditions for rugby. Guys were really looking forward to the game. Jonny (Sexton) had come through the warm-up.”

Management and players had “a bit of chat”, made a few plans for the evening, including the post-non match meal, and then followed an equally bemused looking French team onto the pitch.

“Yeah we wanted to do a bit of fitness. We got out and did a quarter of a session but they (officials) wanted us to leave; they wanted us to get off the pitch because they felt the crowd were hanging around because we were hanging around so we had to move on. Guys are pumped up and ready for action and nowhere to go.”

The worse areas had been the half of the pitch France had conducted their pre-match warm-up.

“I know where the French team warmed up there were some areas that were very problematic and I know that when Jonny went down kicking that Morgan Parra had indicated once or twice there were a few bad areas and Jonny reckoned there were a few bad areas as well. Certainly when we came on from the Astroturf to the sideline it was like concrete and if it was like that in patches of the pitch I reckon the ref probably made the right decision but I actually didn’t get down there to see what it was like.”

Like Kidney, O’Connell had huge sympathy for Pearson.

“It’s strange in this day and age that a game can be put off. Certainly for Dave, it’s tough to be the one guy holding the future of players in their hand. Paul Wallace picked up a bad injury playing on a frozen pitch which effectively hurt his career, so I think it’s a tough situation for a referee to be in and you can probably see why he would err on the side of caution.”

O’Connell also echoed Kidney’s view when seeming to prefer rearranging the match for three weeks hence than next weekend.

“I think it would be hard to come back next weekend. Some guys love playing four or five games in a row. Other guys don’t. I think in terms of guys have plans to get home, spend a bit of time with the family after three weeks in camp this week.”

It was the same story in the home dressingroom. “We were ready to go – everyone wanted to play, everyone was ready to play, nobody had the thought we might not be going out onto the pitch,” revealed Aurelien Rougerie.

“Maybe it made sense to cancel it at that point, before it started. It would be wrong to take the risk of playing just until half-time and they would cancel the match then – as happened with one of the womens’ game last week.

“We don’t know when we are playing the match but I hope they make the decision tonight because we are going back to Marcoussis tonight. I don’t know whether I am to go back to Clermont and wait or whether we are all staying at (sigh) Marcoussis,” he said in reference to the state of the art but remote FFR base which the players have nicknamed Markatraz.